Thudong: Forest Monks and Hermits of Southeast Asia

F

orest monks of Southeast Asia, also called ascetic monks or meditation monks
because they embraced thudong or ascetic austerities, revived the Theravada Buddhist tradition directly linked to the historical Gautama Buddha.
This thudong tradition emphasizes meditation and
ascetic practice over scholarly and literary pursuits. It celebrates the forest and
wandering monks and hermits as opposed to the coenobitic, urban and institutionalized
monks of the centralized national sanghas.

The forest monk tradition,
originating in India, spread to historical Thailand, Burma, Laos, and Sri Lanka.
Its revival, however, was a nineteenth-century reform movement intricately
related to its forest setting. The tradition essentially passed out of existence with the
destruction of its natural setting. Nevertheless, the thudong tradition represents a
rich heritage of eremitism.

Origins

The origins of the forest monk tradition is traced to Asoka, the
third-century B.C.E. Buddhist emperor of India whose state-sponsored
codification of Buddhist practice and patronage of missionaries to neighboring
states signaled the invigoration of Buddhism outside of the land of its birth.

The main literary source of forest monk ascetic practice, however, is the
Visuddhimagga of fifth-century C.E. Buddhaghosa. The
Visuddhimagga -- which means "Path of Purification" --introduced the vinaya
or ascetic discipline, the groundwork of a meditation method within the context
of a compendium of doctrine. This comprehensive document became what one
authority calls the "unitary standard of doctrinal orthodoxy for all Theravada
Buddhists."

But as centuries passed, its influence ebbed and flowed. Thee conscious
revival of the vinaya in the nineteenth century rescued an important
resource that provided the impetus for a renewed eremitical practice.

The origins of forest monk practice can be identified in part in the terminology
used. As one scholar states:

Ascetic and meditating monks may be referred to variously as forest-dwelling
monks, ascetic monks, or meditators, depending on which facet of the life is to
be emphasized Significantly, forest-dwellers are sometimes referred to as
tapassi. ... This term is usually applied to non-Buddhist ascetics who
practice self-mortification, and suggests the extent to which Buddhist
asceticism had acquired the fascination in itself which asceticism holds in
other Indian traditions.

The outward similarity of the forest monks to Hindu and Jain sadhus
suggests a vibrant culture of asceticism in ancient and medieval India. In
twelfth-century Ceylon (Sri Lanka), Mahakassapa of Dimbulaga offered a
definitive revival of Buddhist asceticism in publishing his Mahavamsa, a
meditation manual, plus a set of governing vinaya rules or katikavatu
to govern sangha practice. Mahakassapa further recommended to the Sri
Lankan king the creation of a national sangha. The tenuous relationship
between secular ruler, ecclesiastical authority and ascetic practice was,
however, to plague the ascetic tradition throughout southeast Asia in a way that
did not affect the non-Buddhist sadhus of India.

Another source of forest monk asceticism was based on the traditional portrayals of the
Buddha in previous lives as found in the Jataka stories. The Jataka stories were an immediate source of
inspiration to Pannananda in late nineteenth-century Sri Lanka, a more literary
and folkloric source versus either the Visuddhimagga or formal suttas or
sutras.

Jataka asceticism was continued in Sri Lanka by Pannananda's disciple Subodnanda,
who developed a village asceticism wherein a discipline for laity was not
based on scholarly or monastic models. Subodnanda also introduced the notion of
self-ordination when the sanghas of cities and towns refused to cede
their authority. From village-based asceticism in Sri Lanka came the later break
to the creation of small monastic communities based on non-authoritarian
decision-making and dwelling in the forests. These small communities of monks
(largely self-ordained) were conceived of as a primeval sangha in a
style that the historical Gautama would have approved, according to its Sri
Lankan champion Ratanapala Asmandale, who lived through the mid-twentieth century.

Practice

The Visuddhimagga presents three essential components of asceticism: 1) virtue
or discipline (sila), 2) concentration or meditation (samadhi),
and wisdom or insight (panna). These methods are pursued both
consecutively and simultaneously.

The ultimate goal of the path is purification (visuddhi). Purity is
the essential metaphor of practice: purity of mind, heart, and body. At the same
time, the ascetic path here recommended is marked by a psychological pragmatism
that emphasizes concrete results versus speculation and metaphysics.

This emphasis on achieving purification through practice rather than through
scholarship and learning seems consistent with the probable intention of the
historical Gautama, but also suggests a disengagement from the ecclesiastical and
monastic institutionalization that fostered what were aptly called in Thai
pariyat, or "pundit monks."

Additionally, the Visuddhimagga saw the optimum physical setting for the path
of purification as isolation, seclusion, or reclusion (viveka). As the
Sutta Nipiti states:

Unfettered, like a deer in the forest,
Which browses wherever it will,
A wise man minds his freedom;
Like the one-horned rhinoceros: wander alone!

The Visuddhimagga recommends thirteen dhutangas or ascetic
practices. These were not originally Buddhist practices but represent an
evolution of thought, represented in the documents ascribed to the body of
Buddha's discourses. The practices became emblematic of Buddhist asceticism by
the time of the influential Questions of Milinda or Milindapanho
(12th century). The thirteen dhutangas are:

wearing rag robes

using only three robes

begging alms

not omitting any house when begging

eating only once a day

eating only from the bowl

eating no second helpings

eating in the forest

eating at the foot of a tree

living in the open air

living in a cemetery

being satisfied with whatever dwelling one receives

sleeping in a sitting position and never lying down

The forest monk was to use discarded cloth to make his robes, only
secondarily accepting cloth deposited at his dwelling or along his daily path.
Overall, the monk was to make and maintain three robes.

The monk does not store
or cook food but daily enters the nearby village (which could be several miles
distant) and begs. This entails visiting each house in succession; he is not to
go to the wealthiest house or the most generous household first but to each in
order. The monk presents his bowl in silence; Sri Lankan monks held a fan to
their faces, like Japanese Zen monks whose large headgear effectively covered
their faces. The food was to be from householders' excess, not specially
prepared for the monk's coming or prepared for them upon being sighted. These
latter precriptions correspond to the practice of Hindu and Jain sadhus.

The monks' routine was to set off for alms at midmorning, giving them time to
return to their dwelling places by about midday. If they formed an organized
hermitage, the forest monks would assemble in a separate edifice or dining hall
(sala), redistribute the food as need, and eat from their bowl in
silence, without utensils and without taking a second helping. If they food was
in excess it was to be given away. The typical Thai fare was rice, often with a
sauce of chilies, and some vegetable, and occasionally fruit -- whatever a
typical household happened to have, which was often only rice. The monks
normally had a well or stream as a source of water. The midday meal was the only
meal, but an afternoon tea from gathered herbs was acceptable.

Where the ascetic monk lived was representative of his practice. Developed
hermitages followed a pattern known in the west among Carthusian monks:
individual dwellings in proximity to one another. In Thailand, the individual
hut was called a kuti, made of bamboo, palm, or other already-fallen
wood. In Sri Lanka, the huts were often concrete and wood, with concrete floors.
When a master and discipline dwelt together it was in a single edifice. When a
monk was a hermit, he might live in a previously occupied hut but more likely a
cave if he was stationary for any period. In every case the dwelling must be in a forest with no village or
other habitation visible or readily accessible.

Individual practitioners would pursue more rigorous settings. In Thailand,
wandering monks carried a klot or modest tent-like cloth and mosquito
netting, which could be set up in the open air, a cave, at the foot of a tree,
or in a cemetery. The wandering monk was not complain about whatever setting he pursued,
discovered, or was obliged to use. That he never lay down to sleep but only sat
was a common ascetic practice throughout Buddhist tradition in later centuries.
Only a monk who was sick lay down.

A typical schedule for the forest monk was to sleep from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m.,
meditate from 2 to 6 a.m., wash up, clean, and sweep until going out for alms,
then returning to eat, rest, attend to other chores, and spend another four
hours in meditation, usually 6 to 10 p.m.

One set of chores pursued by village monks -- those who lived close to
villages in open air as well as those who lived in hermitages -- was manual
labor to assist villagers in times of need such as well-digging, house-building
or harvesting. Village monks did not refrain from contact with people when the
purpose was well-defined and a helpful means of expressing compassion and
loving-kindness.

Additionally, wandering elders or masters with one or two disciples or
younger monks, might take up a months-long regimen of travel, sometimes without
a particular itinerary, following rivers, forest highlights, mountains, valleys,
and the thread of isolated villages for their food, though sometimes wandering
monks went without food for days when they lost their way. Such monks could
readily pursue the practices of sleeping in the open air under trees and in
caves or in cemeteries, all the while adhering to a discipline of meditating in
the wilderness.

And meditation was, indeed, the core of their practice, in vivid contrast to
the pundit monks. One observer summarizes the motivation of the ascetic monks
thusly:

They knew that if they studied the dhamma without practicing it, they would
remain unaware of its deeper meaning. They realized that the value of the dhamma
was not to be found in reading and studying but in training the mind through the
thudong life. Finally, they understood that the best place to study the Buddha's
teachings was not in a comfortable monastery but in their own school, their own
university: the heart of the forest, a grove, the shade of a single tree, the
cemetery, the open air, the slope of a mountain, the foot of a mountain, a
valley. They believed that such places were recommended by the Buddha as the
supreme university.

The forest was valued as a natural setting for solitude and seclusion, and
many thudong monks became hermits for selected periods of time, dwelling deeper
within the isolated landscape of mountainous caves and secluded forest cover.
While the three-month rains retreat often attracted temporary and visiting monks
and meditators, the rigors of this period were intensified for regular monks.
But the advantages of the forest setting for mindful meditation, for
demonstrated faith in a master's directions, and for the well-being of the forest
monk sangha and animals were motivating sources.

Three Fears

Fear accompanied many wilderness newcomers, due in part to the insecurity of
daily life and survival but especially fear of wild animals, sickness and injury,
and -- given the accretions of cultural lore -- ghosts.

Many forest monks record their encounters with wild animals, namely tigers,
elephants, and snakes. Tigers often lurked around hermits in their open air
klots at night, and the monks learned to face fear directly. While with a
master, the monk learned to listen and observe not only rituals and discipline
but what to do and not do around tigers, thereby conquering fear. Some masters
deliberately traveled at dusk or slept on trails in order to train their mind
against the fear of animals, especially since they wanted their disciples to
experience eremitism, to wander alone, and to live in mountains, caves and under
trees.

Where tigers and elephants were typical of Thailand forests, snakes were
common in Sri Lanka as well. In one anecdote, a preaching monk sat speaking for half an
hour while a poisonous snake came up and lay unmoving at his side. The snake
left only teaching was finished, convincing listeners of the powerful truth of the
dhamma.

In such settings the training of the mind was invaluable. As one master, Ajan
Man, put it:

From such a mind an attacker will draw back, be it a tiger, a snake, or an
elephant. The aspirant may even be able to walk right up to it. His attitude
towards animals is based on metta [loving-kindness], which has a
mysterious but real and profound influence ...

A second fear that masters bade their disciples overcome was fear of corpses
and spirits. The Visuddhimagga teaches the corpse meditation as a way of
inculcating a spirit of impermanence but also as a practical way of
conquering sexual temptation, and fear of illness and disease. But spending the
night in a cemetery, whether in the open air or in a klot, could be the
source of great
fear.

The cemeteries of southeast Asia were not the tombstones and spacious
lawns of the Western world. Corpses were brought and deposited in shrouds on the
ground, make-shift cremations incomplete or left unfinished with nightfall. One
monk records being in a cemetery at dusk when villagers brought a shrouded body
and left the smoldering corpse on the ground where the monk could see it from
his klot. As in any such case, the odor was overwhelming and the monk's
imagination stirred. The monk was taught to recognize and observe fear, to
control it with mindfulness, and ultimately to transcend it. But that seldom
happened without considerable experience.

The third fear was fear of bodily suffering. The widespread contraction of
malaria by forest-dwellers called for perseverance, especially when palliative
drugs were unavalable in isolated locales. Despite suffering malarial fever,
some monks did not deviate from their discipline, walking in pain or sitting
stolidly in the open air during rain storms. The conviction that pain is rooted
in the mind was a strong motivation to discipline.

In terms of physical hardship, the forest-dwelling monks contrasted their
wilderness context to the cozy, rarified atmosphere of the monastery. To the
forest-dwelling monks and hermits, book learning could not overcome bodily
suffering. A strong intellect might mask emotional weakness, undermining
mindfulness. Ajan Man, who passed a rains retreat while suffering severe stomach
pains, would sometimes enter towns and villages in order to test himself against
temptations of food and sensual desire. Mastering sense stimuli would guard
against viewing the forest as an escape.

History

Historically, the forest-monks and hermits of southeast Asia were unregulated
and adhered to the discipline of tradition and practice. The Sangha Act of 1902
was the first formal attempt by the the state and ecclesiastical bureaucracy of
Thailand to centralize monastic practice. The act designated the king as "Patron
of the Sangha" overseeing a Supreme Patriarch in charge of ecclesiastical
affairs.

The practical effect of the Act, however, was to reign in the forest monks by
curtailing the power of their abbots to ordain new monks or to establish
hermitages, privileges the Act centralized in key urban monasteries and their
abbots. In Sri Lanka, similar legislation led to a "self-ordination" movement,
with several village temple abbots and charismatic figures breaking away from
the central government and ecclesiastical establishment with the support of key
laity. But here, too, the movement was short-lived.

A second Sangha Act in 1962 ushered in what one authority calls the "Forest
Invasion Period" in Thailand, running through the late 1980's. A military
dictatorship in the early sixties promoted economic development in the
countryside, which mean centralization of rural and agricultural lands and
resources.
Industrialization and deforestation destroyed the habitat of the forest-dwelling
monks (as well as of wild animals), finishing off what the Buddhist hierarchy in
Bangkok could not achieve through rules and pressure.

Forest monks were labeled pro-Communist by the government, and the forests
were seen as
hiding places for insurgents, a view held by the Thai government throughout the
Vietnam War era. The particular targets of repression were the wandering and
village laboring monks. Most hermitage monks reluctantly moved to centralizing
monasteries. All the forest monks were vilified as "monks with their eyes
closed" because they practiced meditation in contrast to urban monks.

But it was the loss of the forests that was the most obvious result of this
period. One
scholar summarizes thusly:

Forced by the turmoil of the 1960's and 1970's to come out of their secluded
retreats, the thudong monks attempted to teach others about the binding link
between humans and the natural world. They were unable, however, to counter the
tremendous forces of modernization. People in contemporary societies seem
basically insensitive to the larger meaning and value of the environment.

For the thudong monks ... the remote wilderness was a sanctuary in which they
could train their minds. When they chose, they could withdraw deep into the bush
where no one would be able to find them. The forest was home to wandering monks:
it was their school, their training ground, and their sanctuary, and life there
it
was safe provided the monks were mindful.

The last generation of forest monks were placed in controlled monastic
settings where they received "ample material support, high status, and frequent
praise" but had lost their autonomy and their wilderness setting for zoo-like
conditions. Urban dwellers and visitors expected the monks to tell fortunes and
peddle amulets. Visitors showed no interest in their teachings or practices. The last of
the original generation of notable Thai forest monks was Ajan Chah, who died in
1994. He reports how he felt like a monkey on a string. People came to gawk at him, poke
at him, watch him jump. "When I get tired," he once remarked,
"maybe they throw me a banana."

Conclusion

The interconnection between practice and setting was essential to the forest
monk. As one scholar observes,

The wandering forest monk tradition ... developed within a specific natural
and sociocultural ecosystem. When that ecosystem changed -- when the forests
disappeared and the forest communities vanished or were transformed -- the
tradition could no longer persist.

Despite the pleas of the thudong monks, the forests of Thailand have
been mostly clear-cut. And with this loss, the rich tradition of the forest monk
and hermit is virtually extinguished from its natural setting. But the
principles of the Visuddhimagga continue to inspire Theravada Buddhism
and those fortunate enough to encounter the legacy of vipassana and the
meditation tradition bequeathed to the modern world by the thudong
tradition.